when I type lsusb I can see my nic but it does not show up with ifconfig

Yeah, Snakeoil OS is a very streamlined OS using a custom kernel with a lot of drivers stripped out. Hence only the most common hardware are supported and anything else will require other custom kernels. This is the reason why ifconfig didn't show up anything as the driver for your USB Ethernet is not included in the stock Snakeoil kernel.